Buckle down

Hope you all are buckled down for a long post! Lots to share!

Lets start at the beginning. With knitting of course! 

The sweater project is progressing quite nicely.

Here's what it looks like at the moment --> 

Missing blocking and finishing steps.

Here's a close up of the fig leaf pattern at the neck. Badly needs to be blocked. But so far so good! I am trying to think of the best way to block all these pieces. Typically I do it on my ironing board because I've never had to block anything so large. Pretty sure a blocking mat investment is in the near future.



The latest and greatest from the super surprise brother-in-law project. I've come to the conclusion they will not be perfect. He's getting these different sized swatches with the real ones. The bottom one is the first try - double stranded grey yarn/too tight stitch/no extra stockinette rows above and below. The middle one is the last try - just finished last night/messed up on the red bottom portion of the logo/two rows of stockinette above and below before starting the seed border with smaller needles. The top is attempt two - using smaller needles for the seed border/looser stitching cause the first one was tight/one strand of grey/no extra rows/it's rectangle. Still working on it! I did however find a graph for the Empire symbol and I'm using it when I get to that.

I found this bracelet on pinterest and really wanted to make one. Then when I got my latest Crochet Today!, there was an article for broomstick lace. It was a sign. I tried acrylic yarn first and it was...well...ugly. I remembered a bit of bamboo blend left over in my stash and was sure that this little item wouldn't take that much yarn. It's not quite as pretty as the one on pinterest, but it's still damn cool. Might I add - it is very difficult to take a photo of your own wrist. Please appreciate this photo! ;)

 In the midst of all this knitting/crocheting gloriousness, my sister came over to make jelly and can salsa.

Wait, there's more! Nothing to do with yarn, but just as exciting. Three weekends ago we picked up two boxes of flooring and some trim for the master bedroom closet. 

Two weekends ago I cut and painted the trim. This trim matches what we put in my childhood room we remodeled a couple years back and are currently living in. I had a huge problem cutting it correctly - it was my first time hanging trim. I discovered this time around that my miter saw is too small for this "gaudy" [Jamie's words] trim. We also always get in a tiff about trim because my better half has zero patience for it. But my nickname is Tetris and I enjoy it. I used a miter box and saw to get it just right. It fits together perfectly. The background is the bedroom wall color: Creek Bend.

This past weekend, after jelly and salsa making, I laid the two boxes of flooring in the closet. I'm two rows short. It's going to be beautiful! The closet color is Oyster something or other.

The flooring/trim/wall color together. Love!

This is the last photo ya'll I promise! Monday our Americana hen layed a little mini-egg! Here's our normal egg with the mini egg for reference! Look how cute it is! I'm hoping she'll start laying normal-sized eggs eventually.

Thanks for sticking with me through all that! Have a great rest of the week!

Em